Speech #970246917

I rise in support of House Concurrent Resolution 336. a resolution calling on the Soviet Union to honor its obligations under international human righs agreements and calling on our own President to convey congressional concern on this issue to the Soviet authorities at every appropriate opportunity including summit talks or negotiations on trade or other matters. The plight of the Jewish people in the Soviet Union today is on the conscience of many of us. Dramatic reductions in the rate of emigration from the Soviet Union has meant the virtual imprisonment of thousands of Jews living within Soviet borders. In testimony presented to the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations on July 29. 1982. Dr. William Korey of Bnai Brith International. summed up their plight with these words: For Soviet Jews it is more than the abridgement of both international law and international treaties which are at stake. Deprived of Jewish cultural facilities. restricted In effective and free access to Judaism and Jewish tradition. and confronted by deepening antiSemitism. they today are almost totally prevented from emigrating and being united with their families and kin in Israel. In the words of some 130 leading Soviet Jewish activists. in a desperate plea sent to the Soviet Party Congress in February. 1981. they "face the threat of a national catastrophe." A more desperate cry has not been heard in recent Jewish history. According to a statement by the Union of Councils of Soviet Jewry at that same hearing. the emigration rate in 1979 was about 4.000 Jews per month with an annual total of 51.331 in contrast to the present trend in 1982 which. if it continues will mean less than 3.000 will leave the Soviet Union this year. It Is estimated that some 500.000 Jews still seek to leave the Soviet Union. The National Conference on Soviet Jewry also reported that: The refusenik community. comprised of those Jews whose applications for emigration have been rejected at least twice. presently numbers approximately ten thousand. Nearly fifty families have been struggling for their right to leave for over ten years. and more than 130 families have been waiting between five and ten years . . . There are currently fourteen Jewish activists serving sentences on unjustified chargestheir true crime being the desire to emigrate to Israel. Some of the recommendations for dealing with these problems which emerged at the subcommittee hearing are embodied in the resolution before us today which calls on the administration to raise our concerns with the Soviet authorities at every appropriate opportunity including summit talks and negotiations on grain trade or other agreements. The resolution further calls on the administration to convey our concern to our allies in an effort to obtain their cooperation in promoting emigration from the Soviet Union. A January 26. 1982. editorial in the New York Times said it well when it observed: Permitting an orderly emigration and thus adhering to the Helsinki Final Act would not be just a favor to the United States. It would counter one of the oldest reproaches leveled at Russia. Even in czarist times. it was grimly nicknamed "The PrisonHouse of Peoples" because so many ethnic minorities were sealed inside. This issue is a nonpartisan one on which Members of both sides of the aisle are united. The administration is firmly committed to addressing this problem and. in views submitted to the Foreign Affairs Committee. assured us that U.S. officials consistently encourage Soviet authorities to be less harsh and more responsive toward Soviet Jews who wish to emigrate. In the instance of longstanding emigration cases. the United States presents a list of these periodically to highlevel Soviet officials to emphasize U.S. concern. Mr. Speaker.